1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera having a strobe incorporated therein, which has a light emitter that is movable between a retracted position and an operative position (i.e., light emitting position).
2. Description of the Related Art
Cameras having automatic light modulation type strobes has increased in number, because of its easy handling. A strobe incorporated camera having a strobe control apparatus is also known, in which a light emitter of the strobe is supported by a supporting mechanism, such as a retractable mechanism or a pop-up mechanism, so as to move between a retracted position in which the light emitter is retracted in the camera body and an operative position, i.e., a light emitting position, in which the light emitter projects outward from the camera body by an electrical driver (e.g., an electrically driven motor).
In such a known strobe incorporated camera, the control of strobe light emission is usually effected in accordance with exposure factors, such as brightness data of an object to be taken or calculated shutter speed data. Namely, when the object brightness is below a predetermined value, the light emitter is brought to the operative position to emit strobe light. After the strobe light is emitted, the light emitter is returned to the retracted position. Conversely, if the object brightness is above a predetermined value, the light emitter is kept in the retracted position, since no strobe light is necessary.
In the conventional camera mentioned above, whether the strobe should be used or not is determined in accordance with data detected by a photometer when a release button is pushed down by a half step (or, depressed halfway). If it is determined that the strobe should be used, the light emitter is moved to the operative position (i.e., light emitting position) to emit the strobe light. Accordingly, the light emitter is moved whenever the brightness is below a predetermined value, regardless of the filming (exposing), which is however troublesome.
Furthermore, upon self-timer photographing, whether or not the strobe should be used is determined at the commencement of the self-timer operation. Consequently, if it is determined that the strobe should be used, the light emitter is moved to the operative position, so that the light is emitted to expose, when the set time is up. This, however, causes a problem in that the detected brightness no longer corresponds to the actual brightness upon exposure.
There is also known a single-lens reflex camera having a retractable strobe incorporated therein, further including an automatic focusing device which has an auxiliary light emitting element provided in the light emitter for emitting a contrast pattern and a so-called passive photometering means (i.e., means for calculating the amount of defocus). In this automatic focusing single-lens reflex camera, the light emitter is moved to the operative position to cause the auxiliary light emitting element to emit the contrast pattern onto the object to be taken when the brightness is below a predetermined value, so that the automatic focusing operation, such as a detection of an object distance, is performed, based on the contrast pattern of light reflected by the object.
However, in such a strobe incorporated single-lens reflex camera, if self-timer photographing is effected, the photometering operation and the detection of the object distance are effected at the commencement of the self-timer operation. Accordingly, if the object moves thereafter, the object is "out of focus".